Stream Restoration Assessment and Planning for Nutrient Reduction in Durham, NC
Sandra Wilbur, PE
City of Durham
Durham, NC
Mike Fowler, PE
Wildlands Engineering
Durham, NC
In 2007, the City of Durham (City) initiated a series of watershed studies to develop Watershed Improvement Plans (WIPs) for seven major watersheds. The WIPs are focused on improving water quality, stream conditions, and watershed health due to two factors: (1) each of these watersheds drains to either Falls Lake or Jordan Lake (important regional water supply reservoirs) that are defined as nutrient sensitive and have regulations that require significant reductions in annual nutrient loads; and (2) many of the local streams are currently on the 303(d) list of “impaired” waters due to degraded water quality or aquatic habitat. Therefore, the primary goals of each WIP is to help the City comply with the nutrient reduction requirements for Falls and Jordan Lakes and to improve the water quality and aquatic health in the City’s local creeks and rivers.
To help the City meet these goals, each WIP assessed existing conditions within each watershed, identified sources of pollution that can negatively affect water quality, identified potential water quality improvement projects, and prioritized the most cost-effective projects for implementation. One of the primary project types analyzed by the City to improve water quality and aquatic health has been stream restoration. The authors presentation will focus on the assessment of stream restoration projects as a component of each WIP, including:
Methods applied to inventory and assess the existing conditions of the City’s creeks (over 150 miles to date)
Assessment of the water quality benefits provided by the stream restoration projects on an individual and watershed scale
Water quality effectiveness of stream restoration in comparison to other project types (e.g., stormwater BMPs)
The speakers will also present the implementation and expected water quality improvements of two stream restoration projects in the City:
Third Fork Creek restoration project, completed in 2017, which restored Third Fork Creek and several tributaries where severe erosion was threatening a greenway trail and sewer collection system
South Ellerbe Restoration Project, currently underway, which will restore two tributaries of South Ellerbe Creek, create an emergent wetland system throughout the adjacent floodplain, and integrate several site amenities to create a community asset
About Sandra Wilber, PE
Sandra Wilbur is a professional engineer in the State of North Carolina and the Commonwealth of Virginia and has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware. She has 25 years of engineering experience working in both the public and private sector in the areas of hydraulics and hydrology, watershed planning for water quality and quantity, stormwater management, SCM design and maintenance, infrastructure design and construction, ordinance and rule writing, and NPDES program management. She is currently head of the Watershed Planning and Special Projects unit at the City of Durham in the Public Works Stormwater Services Division where she has worked for the past 10 years.
About Mike Fowler
Mike Fowler is the leader of the Virginia Operations for Wildlands Engineering, a leader in water resources engineering and ecosystem restoration services in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic U.S. with offices in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Mike has 25 years of experience in watershed planning, stormwater management, stream and wetland restoration, and design of stormwater management systems. He serves as a senior project manager and technical advisor for Wildlands Engineering.